Having Success in Online Learning

Create a daily schedule for yourself and stick to it!

• Include rewards for completing your work.  Examples may include going for a walk, taking a 10 minute break or 10 minutes of checking in with friends.

• What time are you waking up?  Going to bed?  Doing your work?  This is extremely important.  Without the structure of an in-person school day, it’s easy to get off task and choose to always do something else besides your work.  Schedule it and stick to it!

• Focus on scheduling at least 45 minutes each day for each online class.  You can adjust your schedule once you start your classes and figure out how much time you actually need. 

• A full time online student should expect to spend 4-5 hours every day on their coursework.  That seems like a lot but it’s still much shorter than an in-person day of school.

• If you are a part time student, take advantage of your study hall or open period.  It’s easy to waste that time by talking to your friends, sleeping in or scrolling through social media.  But if you don’t do your work during that open period, when are you going to do that work?  It’s very easy to fall behind quickly if you aren’t using your time wisely.  

Log in every day and do at least one day's worth of work in each of your online classes.

If for some reason you can’t log in every day due to a busy schedule, be proactive.  Prepare yourself by doing additional work before your schedule gets busy, mentally prepare yourself that you may need to work on the weekend to catch up and take advantage of days off of school by working in your online classes. Students who stay on pace or within a few days of on pace, tend to do much better in their online classes.  If you fall too far behind, it creates unnecessary anxiety and stress! Pay close attention during your onboarding meeting on how to sign in, how attendance works, etc. Edgenuity has a lot of great features!  In particular the course map, which tells you what you are supposed to do that day, and the ability to take digital notes to help you with quizzes, tests and other assignments. 

Advocate for yourself!

Ask whenever you have a question.In an online environment we cannot see your faces to know if you are understanding the content or assignments. The only way we know if you need help is if you ask!

Socialize with family and friends

Sometimes an online environment can be lonely and repetitive.  It’s important to make sure you continue to reach out and connect with your friends and family. Actually Connect! Meet for a cup of coffee or a treat and talk face to face.

Set your environment for success

• Put away the phone and other distractions.

• Make doing your schoolwork a priority!

• Find a separate space in your environment that is just for schoolwork